Zenless Zone Zero has just begun its second closed beta test however miHoYo’s upcoming RPG title is already dead in the water.
What do I mean about that exactly? The entire premise and point of these prolific mobile oriented gacha games is that they specifically target certain kinds of audiences, audiences who are mainly male have virtually zero standards when it comes to supposed “gameplay” and above all else are heterosexual.
Men like pretty women.
It’s an interesting concept that seemingly falls on death ears when it comes to western media, men like pretty women and men like boobs, which is essentially the main draw and allure of these mobile gacha titles, giving the player a virtually unlimited supply of seductive women to choose from and shell out money to acquire in-game.
miHoYo on the other hand is possibly one of the most prominent gacha figures, considering how they’ve actually managed to make an actual gacha GAME in the form of Genshin Impact which took the whole world by storm, with over 140 million downloads miHoYo unfortunately had to pander towards western sensitives by censoring various outfits of characters alongside having nerfed one character’s chest size in particular from teaser cutscenes to becoming a playable character.
And unfortunately, it would seem that miHoYo have once again focused on maintaining a more sensible corporate image by introducing self-censorship with the second CBT for Zenless Zone Zero by making adjustments to the character of Nicole Demara.
Nicole Demara for lack of a better term has been essentially been one of the staple characters featured across promotional imagery for the game itself, when it comes to her popularity in terms of fan artwork you may as well consider her to be the iconic face of Zenless Zone Zero, with her long pink hair, revealing attire and large breasts, adorned with high levels of jiggle physics as seen from the first closed beta test, she is without question the face of ZZZ.
However it was not to be as miHoYo have essentially waved the white flag to competing gacha titles in terms of why their core audience of men would want to play Zenless Zone Zero.
Comparative footage between the first closed beta test and second closed beta test reveals that miHoYo have interjected and made adjustments to the character design of Nicole, specifically they’ve essentially removed the jiggle physics on her breasts, there’s a slight wiggle of movement but in all honesty you’d have to squint to actually see that.
Switching between menu tabs on a given character will have them adjust their pose and move around, many found this alluring on Nicole given her assets, however the fun is seemingly over following the second closed beta test.
So, her breasts no longer jiggle, if only that were the only change, miHoYo have actually gone above and beyond for establishing Zenless Zone Zero as another western friendly rendition second to Genshin Impact, obviously in an attempt to reduce the amount to sentiment against the game by deranged heterophobics, Nicole’s actual breast size has been reduced slightly as well.
Her actual animation has changed as well, to be far less suggestive obviously, Nicole now no longer holds her arm underneath her chest while simultaneously striking a pose, rather she just holds a hand on her hip with barely any pose as the camera looks up towards her.
The previous video didn’t do it justice in terms of just how far miHoYo have gone to give Nicole a free breast reduction, however this comparative video makes the changes much more obvious for observation, it’s a notable reduction.
Such radical censorship doesn’t come as much of a surprise for me, given how miHoYo have been desperately catering towards the fujoshi crowd with six of the last seven gacha banners for Genshin Impact prioritizing the inclusion of new MALE characters.
Once or twice is a coincidence but six of the last seven banners for Genshin favoring male characters as the main attraction? Now I’m starting to understand why Genshin’s monthly profits have been running on the thinner side these last few months, people thought the game’s userbase just dried up, I would too if all I was being offered in-game were male characters seeing as how I’m neither homosexual or happen to be a woman.
Games like Azur Lane, Goddess of Victory: NIKKE and Blue Archive are all various examples of gacha games that understand the revolutionary concept that men are usually attracted to women, so it comes as no goddamn surprise how all three of those games among many others have continued to last the test of time or become established IPs of their lonesome.
Femininity is the only goddamn niche and draw these gacha games have in comparison to western designed media and video games, for miHoYo to simply go out of their way to censoring the female characters of Zenless Zone Zero by nerfing their breasts and essentially removing their jiggle physics too is akin to telling their core audience to go fuck themselves and find another game to shell out the big bucks on.
And find another game we shall.
Because I won’t be playing this shit, and I’m sure many people are now sharing similar sentiment upon discovering that miHoYo have once again imposed self-censorship of its female characters, expect more discoveries of more characters being adjusted from the first to second closed beta tests and evidently upon the games release.
Other characters that are likely to get a lethal dose of globalization would undoubtedly be Grace Howard, with a modest chest size and a revealing outfit, it’s highly likely that her design and “features” will be getting a downgrade come Zenless Zone Zero’s release.
